"I'm glad I'm not caught up in the KO3 positioning and when I do play Donkey Kong it is for personal achievement and not with the intent of submission."
Me too. I played a game of Drunkey Kong at the end of the night last night while having a deep conversation about Robotron and chaos. One friend, actually that guy Nader who pissed everyone off at the Williams' tourney with his unsportsmanlike behavior, is convinced that Robotron always gives him an out, a chance to survive. We were discussing whether this is in the programming or only in his perception. He also thinks that if he plays a casual game of Arkanoid, that the power ups fall much more often, but if he goes for a big game, the game gets stingy. I think unlike moods this could very well be part of the programming. It would be simple for a programmer to add certain triggers which dial back the difficulty of the game in that way. And he's no Arkanoid slouch, either; he's had 1.3M on his best game.
I got like 153k or something. Two fireball deaths at the top right ladder on two different cement factory boards. I don't remember where the other two deaths were, I'm guessing barrels. My favorite is when the cement factory fucks me, but I manage to unfuck myself. That happened a few times and always feels great.
I can't see playing DK any other way. Maybe if its in the BotA again I'll play it sober. Playing for the team makes a game fun.